The Things We Carry...

I had another thought as I've been reading (sorry I'm a little post-happy so far).

When the Lord commands Lehi to take his family and get the heck out of Dodge (k, Jerusalem), Lehi did. period. He was this wealthy established guy and at the drop of a hat, he just left. It says in 1 Nephi 2:4, "he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness". It seems like that shows what you really value, what you leave and what you take with you. Lehi obviously valued his family, but all of his worldly wealth, he just left. And later, the boys go back to get the scriptures because they need the gospel with them, so that is also what he valued.

Maybe this is too obvious for a discussion, but what would we take with us into the wilderness and what could we leave? Are we living our lives that way now--that what we would take with us is what we put the most emphasis on now? I don't know. Something to think about.

Family Matters

So, since we're reading this together as a family, I guess I have been a little more aware of family dynamics in the first few chapters we've been reading. It seems in part that 1 Nephi is a study on the inner workings of a family.

• First off, can I just get an amen to Nephi's "born of goodly parents" sentiments. The more I learn about other people's families, the more grateful I am to be a part of you good people.
• In chapter 2, Lehi compares Laman to a river and Lemuel to a valley. It's interesting to think of the culture of the time (not that I'm an expert). They were more patriarchal then. It was more of a big deal for everyone to look to and respect the head of the family. Even though Laman and Lemuel are complete pains in the butt, they still do what their father says because that is the culture, that is how they were raised. However, it's interesting to still see the ever- present conflict of children rebelling from their parents. I think sometimes we are like, "man, what is their problem? Follow the prophet, hello!?" but then again, Lehi was also their dad. How many kids disobey their parents or think they know better than them? Answer: a lot...probably every kid at one time or another. Not that I'm siding with the bad guys :) I'm just saying that the family dynamics were really similar to how they are today.
• I was also thinking about the sibling dynamics. Before, I was thinking "what's the big deal? so what he's their younger brother? he's following the Lord, they've got to know that." But the more I think about it, the harder it would be to humble yourself below your younger brother, especially in their society. As the older brothers, they were going to inherit everything, like Esau was instead of Jacob. They technically would have had all the power in that society. Then to have their little upstart brother be bossing them around, seeming very self-righteous to them. I'm sure that didn't help matters. It's like Joseph and all of his brothers getting mad when he tells them that they're all going to bow down before him....not the brightest idea to get them to like you :)

Whew, how's that for a first post! Please read and comment!

The first of three

Let me suggest three activities that can help us turn the Book of Mormon into the best-read and best-applied book, which will empower us today to become more powerful priesthood holders, even as those in ancient times.

First, feast upon the words of Christ. We must read the Book of Mormon in order to “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.”¹⁰ Feasting upon the words of Christ is a unique experience. When we read and look for principles and doctrines that will help us in our daily lives, we will have a renewed enthusiasm. For example, when the rising generation faces challenges in coping with peer pressure, we can read the book looking specifically for teachings that will help them with this kind of challenge. One of those teachings could be taken from Lemuel’s experience. Lemuel made some wrong choices because he yielded to Laman’s pressure.¹¹ He did not do the right thing because he “knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.”¹² A principle that we can draw from this incident is that learning doctrine about how God deals with us will help us to cope with peer pressure. The Book of Mormon has more teachings and examples about this topic, and we are the generations who can benefit from the teachings of this book.

Elder Walter F. González

October 2009 General Conference

And it came to pass...

Hello everyone, I want to welcome you to the companion blog to our family's scripture study goal of reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover by Easter.  Since we'll be reading roughly the same chapters at the same time, I thought it would be nice for us to have a place where we could ask questions and share insights into the things we're reading.  I think that in doing this we can be more united in our goal and benefit from each other's thoughts and testimonies.

I know we're all very busy, and I don't want to add another load to people.  My hope is that each of us can make short, frequent posts.  We can ask questions that we run into about the scriptures (2nd Nephi will be a great time for this) or about things we could apply the sciptures to, and we can discuss the answers by making comments on each other's posts.  We can also post quotes that relate to what we're reading and share testimonies and experiences related to certain scriptures we read.

Don't feel pressure or guilt to do this if you don't have time.  This may or may not work for us, but I think it's worth a try.  I love you all, and I'm glad we're reading the Book of Mormon together.

love,

Dan